Tuesday, November 04, 2008

life as an ocean



-If "I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong hills" from Out of Africa is the best opening sentence of a book (which I think it is), then I may have found the most perfect conclusion in Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. Speaking of his son-in-law joining the abolitionist cause, a man says,
"You'll be spat on, shot at, lynched, pacified with medals, spurned by backwoodsmen! Crucified! Naive, dreaming Adam. He who would do battle with the many-headed hydra of human nature must pay a world of pain & his family must pay it along with him! & only as you gasp your dying breath shall you understand, your life amounted to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean!"

Adam responds, "Yet what is any ocean but a multitude of drops?"

It's a deeply complex, multilayered book. I recommend it!

-From the first second outside my door this morning to when I arrived at work after a half-hour walk through the park, I was bombarded by cheery, "good morning's". What a great way to start the day.

-An old man who talked to his little dog lovingly in a strong Belfast accent, saying "Ackkkk, Ackkk houw are ye?"

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